Park51

What Park51 and the Clinton-Mezvinsky wedding say about the Jewish community.

Rabbi Brad Hirschfield

Special To The Jewish Week

01/14/2011

While I would not necessarily have labeled it as such, when the religion writers of America declared that Park51, the so-called “Ground Zero Mosque,” was the biggest religion story of the year, it’s hard to ignore — especially given that we are in New York and the fact that this story certainly got the attention of lots of Jews from across the ideological and theological spectrum. And yet, the building itself is not a big deal.

These words and phrases recall some of the challenges and controversies that cropped up for Israel and the Jewish community in 2010, a year of increasing assaults on Jerusalem’s legitimacy on an international scale, and blame from Washington for the lack of progress in Mideast peace efforts.

Application for $5 million from federal fund decried as affront by critics, but board member says it will be decided strictly by grant criteria
Jewish groups mostly silent on issue.

11/23/2010

Adam Dickter

Assistant Managing Editor

News that the organization planning an Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero has applied for $5 million in federal recovery funds for programming has reawakened a controversy that largely fell silent months ago.

The New York Islamic center controversy — and what some analysts say is the worst surge of nativism and bigotry since the Red Scare of the 1950s — is sharpening longstanding rifts in American Jewish life.

A Dutch politician derided by the Anti-Defamation League as an anti-Muslim bigot is among the headline speakers slated to appear at a Sept. 11 rally in Lower Manhattan. The rally, sponsored by the group, Stop Islamization of America, will protest the proposed Islamic community center-mosque near Ground Zero.

The vehement Park51 opponent and day school mom sits down with Jewish Week, up to a point.

09/01/2010

Doug Chandler

Special To The Jewish Week

Pamela Geller had had enough.

The right-wing blogger, whose vehement opposition to the planned Islamic community center near Ground Zero (a “mega-mosque” in her parlance) has earned Geller national headlines, rose from her seat at a Midtown diner last week and, fed up with the line of questioning, stormed out of a Jewish Week interview.

“Shame on you,” she shouted, “shame on you. Stop slamming the good guys.”

A journalist’s offense? Asking questions about her accuracy and her red-meat rhetoric.